Summary: This episode examines the obstacles that keep bloggers from making money - and the adjustments in mindset and attitude needed to making a blog a real ongoing business. Obstacle: Not treating blogging like a business Overwhelmed by all you have to learn, in order to run their blog as a business Thinking you can find a salesperson who will get advertising business for you for a 15% commission Change needed: If you want to make money, you have to acknowledge that blogging IS a business You have to do more than blog. You need to run a business Obstacle: Bloggers spend too much time interacting with blogging community in their niche, instead of focusing on the readers (non-bloggers) in their niche Change needed: Realize YOU are not your target market - and neither are your peers Get feedback from readers Obstacle: Being too picky and too difficult to work with when it comes to partnering with advertisers Too Rigid on prices Overvaluing your blog Undervaluing your blog Making the same negotiation mistakes over and over again Change needed: Learn to negotiate effectively. Consult with mentors who know how to negotiate with advertisers Obstacle: Lone Wolf mentality. Not partnering with other bloggers Change needed: the most successful bloggers have found a way to work cooperatively as a group You have to work together as a team, which goes against the grain - bloggers are very independent Realize that very few bloggers have a megablog, so you have to work with other bloggers to show large numbers (page views, social media) to advertisers Obstacle: Lack of focus Bloggers don't research and commit to a monetization plan They tend to abandon monetization activities before the roots have an opportunity to take hold Change needed: Decide on a monetization strategy that works with your blog Obstacle: Fail to realize the importance of building your blog's authority Change needed: Increase your traffic Build your site authority with Google and Open Site Explorer Off-site content marketing Obstacle: Fail to engage in self/site promotion Change needed: Realize that without promotion, you will never reach the authority needed to become a sought after blog Write press releases Do community outreach Sign-up for HARO so you can get quoted as an expert in the press Obstacle: Bloggers don't truly embrace social media Bloggers complain about all the different types of social media that is out there Bloggers dabble in a lot of different forms of social media, without being very effective at any one method Bloggers get discouraged by low engagement Change needed: Pick one - maybe two - social media channels you can be comfortable with, and focus on those Download the transcript to Podcast 102 here. Join the discussion on Facebook here. Or join us on our Linkedin Group here.
